Envelope-filling station

ABSTRACT

An envelope-filling station having an envelope-filling bench which is added onto a push-in station of a mail-processing machine, in which enclosures or sets of enclosures are conveyed into the push-in station by a conveyor and are pushed into envelopes by a push-in arrangement. The envelopes are conveyed by an envelope-conveying arrangement, on the envelope-filling bench, into a position opposite the push-in arrangement and being opened there and held ready for receiving the enclosures or sets of enclosures. Once filled and conveyed further, the envelope-conveying arrangement contains a circulating envelope-conveying belt, of which the top strand is guided over the envelope-filling bench and is oriented transversely to the push-in direction, in that a roller bar equipped with spring-mounted rollers can be lowered onto the top side of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt, and raised from it, in a controlled manner, in that stops are arranged along the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt and can be brought into an active position directly above the level of the envelope-filling bench, and removed therefrom into an inactive position, in a controlled manner, such that envelopes which have been conveyed up are brought to a standstill in a position opposite the push-in arrangement with the stops active and with the roller bar lowered, are filled with the roller bar raised and are conveyed further with the stops inactive and the roller bar lowered again, and in that at the beginning of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt, by an auxiliary conveying arrangement, envelopes can be conveyed up separately against in particular adjustable stops from a horizontal direction perpendicular to the running direction of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt. The subregions of the respective envelope which have run up against the further stops extend into the gap between the raised roller bar and the beginning of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt such that, when the roller bar is lowered against the top strand of the circulating envelope-conveying belt, the relevant envelope is drawn in front of the push-in arrangement in the conveying direction of the envelope-conveying belt.

[0001] The invention relates to an envelope-filling station according to the preamble of Patent Claim 1.

[0002] Envelope-filling stations of this type are known in general. An example of such an envelope-filling station is described in DE 19500746 A1.

[0003] DE 2319866 A describes an apparatus which is intended for conveying, closing and franking letters and in which, from a stack of filled envelopes, individual envelopes are conveyed by a conveying-belt pair, over a bench, under a lifting beam equipped with a roller and actuated by means of a lifting magnet, and then, on the bench, deflected through 90° in relation to the conveying direction of the conveying belts, are pushed under bars with spring-mounted rollers which interact with driven mating rollers, with the result that the envelopes can then be closed and franked. In order to remove build-ups, the bars with spring-mounted rollers are mounted on a frame arrangement which can be pivoted up by hand.

[0004] Generally known furthermore, for example also from U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,185, are the operations of fixing and opening envelopes which are to be filled in an envelope-filling station by sucker arrangements which act on the top side and the underside of the envelope transported into the envelope-filling station.

[0005] The object of the present invention is to configure an envelope-filling station of the type mentioned in the introduction such that the operations of feeding envelopes, and conveying them further, relative to the push-in station take place reliably, even at high operating speeds, and adjustment to different envelope-filling tasks is comparatively straightforward.

[0006] This object is achieved according to the invention by an envelope-filling station having the features according to Patent Claim 1. Advantageous configurations and developments are characterized in the patent claims subordinate to Claim 1.

[0007] The envelope-filling station proposed here is suitable for a space-saving construction and can be adapted in many different ways to different feeding directions of the enclosures or the sets of enclosures and of the individual envelopes.

[0008] Exemplary embodiments are described in detail hereinbelow with reference to the drawings, in which:

[0009]FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic, perspective view of an envelope-filling station of the type specified here;

[0010]FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified plan view of the envelope-filling station according to FIG. 1;

[0011]FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective illustration of a practical embodiment of the envelope-conveying arrangement for the envelope-filling station according to FIGS. 1 and 2, as seen essentially from the push-in station;

[0012]FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic side view of part of a constituent part of the roller bar forming the envelope-conveying arrangement; and

[0013]FIG. 5 illustrates a plan view of the bottom region of the roller bar, which is shown in detail form in FIG. 4.

[0014] The envelope-filling station of the type specified here and shown in FIG. 1 contains a conveyor 1 with a continuous or cyclically driven conveying chain, of which the conveying fingers project up beyond the top side of the conveyor 1 and form enclosure compartments which are lined up in a row along the top strand of the conveying chain and into which enclosures or sets of enclosures are introduced. Moreover, the envelope-filling station contains a push-in station 2 with a push-in arrangement 3 which contains push-in fingers which are articulated on a lever arrangement and by means of which, during pivot movements of the lever arrangement, enclosures or sets of enclosures which have been delivered by the conveying fingers of the conveyor 1 are pushed by their trailing border and, during the operating thrust, pushed into envelopes 30 which are held ready in a open state.

[0015] Finally, the envelope-filling station contains an envelope-conveying arrangement 4 with an envelope-filling bench 5. The envelope-filling bench 5 extends essentially transversely over the opening of the push-in station 2. Its top side is located approximately level with the top side of the conveyor 1.

[0016] The envelope-filling bench 5 is provided with cutouts through which an envelope-conveying belt 6 is routed such that its top strand runs over the envelope-filling bench 5. At its ends, the circulating envelope-conveying belt 6 is positioned over rollers 7 and 8 which are mounted, beneath the envelope-filling bench 5, on a framework which is not shown in FIG. 1, it being possible for the roller 7 to be driven by a motor 9.

[0017] While the simplified schematic illustration of FIG. 1 shows closed-border slots for the through-passage of the envelope-conveying belt 6, open slots or cutouts are provided in practice in the envelope-conveying bench 5 in order for it to be possible for the envelope-conveying belt 6 to be positioned on the rollers 7 and 8 without it being necessary to split the envelope-conveying belt 6.

[0018] The envelope-conveying belt 6 runs transversely to the push-in direction of the push-in station 2 and can be driven such that its top strand is moved from right to left in relation to the illustration in FIG. 1.

[0019] By means of drives 11 which are only schematically indicated here, a roller bar 10 can be lowered onto the top side of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6, and raised from it, in a controlled manner. For this purpose, the roller bar 10 is articulated on the sides of the housing of the push-in station 2 via links 12.

[0020] The roller bar 10 contains a row of rollers 13 which are on the same track and of which the axes are oriented transversely to the running direction of the envelope-conveying belt 6 and are spring-mounted in relation to the housing of the roller bar 10.

[0021] At the location where the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6 begins to run through beneath the comparatively large-diameter rollers 13 of the roller bars 10, namely in the vicinity of the right-hand end of the envelope-filling bench 5 in FIG. 1, envelopes 30 which have been separated from a stack are conveyed up by an auxiliary conveying arrangement 14, it being the case that, in the auxiliary conveying arrangement 14, the envelopes 30 are moved in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the running direction of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6. The auxiliary conveying arrangement 14 contains an auxiliary conveying belt 17 which is positioned over rollers 15 and 16, it being possible for the roller 15 to be driven in a controlled manner by means of a drive 18 in order to allow the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17 to circulate in the direction of the beginning of the envelope-conveying belt 6. The top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17 is located approximately at the same level as the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6. The rollers 15 and 16 are mounted on a frame (-work), which also serves for supporting the bearings of the rollers 7 and 8 for the envelope-conveying belt 6. Supported on frame (-work) parts projecting up beyond the level of the envelope-filling bench 5, or of the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17 and of the envelope-conveying belt 6, is a bearing journal 19 which is only indicated by a chain-dotted line in FIG. 1 and serves for the pivot mounting of a cross-sectionally approximately U-shaped pivot frame 20. This pivot frame 20 extends rearwards from the bearing spindle 19, above the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17, counter to the conveying direction of the latter. On its underside, which is directed towards the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17, the pivot frame 20 bears abutment rolling bodies which interact with the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17 and can only be seen in part in FIG. 1 although they are not referred to in any more detail. Moreover, a stop slide 21 is guided in a longitudinally displaceable manner on the pivot frame 20 and can be fixed in a certain position by means of a securing arrangement 22. The stop slide 21 contains stops 23 which extend laterally downwards on both sides of the pivot frame 20 and of which the bottom ends extend at least to the level of the top side of the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17.

[0022] Acting through cutouts of the envelope-filling bench 5 are sensors 24 which are directed laterally past the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6 and, via a signal generator 25, deliver envelope-positioning signals to a central control unit 29. Also acting through cutouts of the envelope-filling bench 5, in the region between the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6 and the opening of the push-in station 2, are suction-cup arrangements 27 actuated by means of a drive 26. A solenoid valve 28 allows the suction-cup arrangement 27 to be subjected to a vacuum in a controllable manner. In conjunction with further apparatus parts, the suction-cup arrangement 27 serves for opening and keeping open the envelope 30 respectively conveyed in front of the opening of the push-in station 2, in order that the envelope can be filled with the enclosures or sets of enclosures.

[0023] As with other drives and control apparatuses which, in order to simplify the illustration, are not shown here, the drives 9, 11, 18, 26 and the solenoid valve 28 are connected to the central control unit 29, which is assigned to the relevant envelope-filling station or the mail-processing machine as a whole and controls the operation thereof.

[0024] The functioning of the apparatus parts described hitherto is explained hereinbelow predominantly with reference to FIGS. 1-3.

[0025] Envelopes 30 are removed from a stack, separated in a manner known per se and introduced into the conveying gap between the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17 and the abutment rolling bodies of the pivot frame 20, with the auxiliary conveying arrangement 14 in operation. The introduction takes place such that the envelope opening is oriented rearwards, counter to the conveying direction of the auxiliary conveying arrangement 14, and the closure axis is located at the bottom. The auxiliary conveying arrangement 14 then moves the relevant envelope 30 forwards parallel to the conveying direction of the conveyor 1 until the leading border of the envelope 30 runs up against the bottom ends of the stops 23 of the stop slide 21, whereupon the drive 18 of the auxiliary conveying belt 17 is brought to a standstill, which can take place with control by way of photocells. The stop slide 21 has previously been adjusted such that, when the envelope 30 is brought to a standstill by the stops 23, the envelope opening, as viewed in the conveying direction of the envelope-conveying belt 6, is aligned with a position which the envelope opening has to assume in relation to the opening of the push-in station 2 during correct operation. On account of the stops 23 being arranged on both sides of the auxiliary conveying belt 17, the relevant envelope 30 is also aligned precisely when its leading border runs up.

[0026] It can be seen from the plan view of FIG. 2 that the envelope 30 fed to the envelope-conveying arrangement 4 projects beyond the auxiliary conveying belt 17 on both sides of the latter. If the envelope 30 is then located in a position in which its leading border butts against the stops 23, then the left-hand, projecting part of the envelope 30, in relation to the illustration in FIG. 2, already projects into the region between the first roller 13 of the roller bar 10 and the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6.

[0027] As the envelope 30 is conveyed up by the auxiliary conveying arrangement 17, the roller bar 10 is raised to a sufficient extent by the drives 11, on account of corresponding control by the central control unit 29, with the result that the left-hand part of the envelope 30, in relation to the illustration in FIG. 2, can run without obstruction into the space between the first roller 13 of the roller bar 10 and the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6.

[0028] The envelope-conveying belt 6 is then set in motion by virtue of the drive 9 being switched on from the central control unit 29 and the roller bar 10 is lowered in the direction of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6 by means of the drives 11. The conveying gap between the first roller 13 and the conveying belt 6 grips the envelope 30 positioned against the stops 23 and draws it out past the stops 23 and between the pivot frame 20 and the top strand of the auxiliary conveying belt 17. The envelope 30 is then, by interaction of the rollers 13 of the roller bar 10 and the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6, conveyed further until its leading border, namely the left-hand edge in relation to the illustration in FIG. 2, comes into the region of the sensors 24, which, on account of the envelope-positioning signals of the signal generator 25, results in the controllable drive 9 being switched off first of all, with the result that, finally, the envelope 30 is conveyed precisely into the position in front of the opening of the push-in station 2, as is known per se to the person skilled in the art.

[0029] The drive 26 of the suction-cup arrangement is then made to operate and, by virtue of the solenoid valve 28 being opened, a vacuum is brought into effect, with the result that the adhesive flap of the envelope 30 is secured on the envelope-filling bench 5. Moreover, the drives 11 are moved with the effect of raising the roller bar 10 off from the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6, and the top part of the envelope 30 is raised by further arrangements, in particular by means which will be described hereinbelow, with the result that the envelope opening is freed in order that the push-in arrangement 3 of the push-in station 2 can push into the envelope 30 an enclosure or a set of enclosures which has been conveyed up by the conveyor 1.

[0030] Once this has taken place, the drive 9 sets the envelope-conveying belt 6 in operation again and the filled envelope 30 leaves the region of the push-in station 2 in order to be closed and conveyed further.

[0031] On account of the comparatively large diameter of the rollers 13 of the roller bar 10 and on account of the spring-mounting of the individual rollers 13 relative to the bar housing, the envelope-conveying arrangement 4 is not affected by widely differing envelope thicknesses. Moreover, the envelope-conveying arrangement 4 can process a wide range of different envelope formats. Of course, it is necessary here to provide for adjustability of the stop arrangement 23 parallel to the conveying direction of the envelope-conveying belt 6.

[0032] A further advantage of the envelope-filling station shown and described is that, if, even with large tolerances of the envelope 30 processed, build-ups occur on the envelope-conveying path, these build-ups can easily be removed once the pivot frame 20 has been pivoted up and/or the roller bar 10 has been raised.

[0033] The bench top may be formed differently from the simplified form according to the schematic illustration of FIG. 1, as is shown in FIG. 3 in relation to a practical embodiment of the envelope-conveying arrangement. According to the practical embodiment of FIG. 3, the rollers 7 and 8 are arranged in a floating manner on one side of a framework, for supporting the envelope-filling bench 5, and the slots for the through-passage of the envelope-transporting belt 6 open towards the border of the envelope-filling bench 5 on this side, with the result that the envelope-conveying belt 6 can be positioned on the rollers 7 and 8 from this side of the arrangement.

[0034] The roller bar 10 has an essentially beam-like outline. The individual rollers 13 have a diameter in the range of from 40 mm and 100 mm.

[0035]FIG. 4 shows the bottom wall region of the housing of the roller bar 10, it being possible for this wall region to be divided up in a specific manner. Unlike the purely schematic illustration of FIG. 1, the side walls and the top wall of the housing of the roller bar 10 may be provided with through-passages, cutouts, stiffening ribs and the like. It is possible in particular for the housing of the roller bar 10 to be designed, in its entirety, as a plastic injection moulding, the capacity for shaping the injection moulding being provided by corresponding cutouts. In the specific embodiment of the roller bar 10 which is illustrated schematically in FIGS. 4 and 5, the bottom wall region of the housing is formed by a series of approximately V-shaped spring tongues 32, of which the lateral legs are connected at 33 to side-wall parts of the housing of the roller bar 10 and anchored thereon. The lateral legs of the spring tongues 32 extend inwards, in an angled manner in their centre plane, to form upwardly projecting bearing lugs 34, on which the rollers 13 are mounted in each case. Finally, the spring tongues 32 contain a U-shaped part 35 which connects the side legs and in the vertex region of which is located the through-passage for the connection 36 of a suction cup 37 assigned in each case to some of the rollers 13.

[0036] If the roller bar 10 is raised off from the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6 by the drives 11, each of the rollers 13 on the housing of the roller bar 10 assumes, relative to an envelope 30 which rests on the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt 6, the position which is illustrated by solid lines in FIG. 4. The bottom vertex of the roller 13 is at a certain distance from the top side of the envelope 30. The spring tongue 32 of the base region of the housing of the roller bar 10, said spring tongue serving for mounting the roller 13, is located horizontally at a certain distance above the envelope 30. If the roller bar 10 is raised further, the distance also increases such that the bottom opening of the suction cup 37 also maintains a certain distance from the top side of the envelope 30.

[0037] If, however, the roller bar 10 is lowered, the lowest point of the roller 13 is positioned on the top side of the envelope 30 and presses the envelope 30 against the moving envelope-conveying belt 6. In order, however, to avoid the situation where the top side of the envelope 30 is then drawn with friction along the opening of the suction cup 37, the roller bar 10 is lowered further, with the result that the position depicted by chain-dotted lines in FIG. 4 is reached. In this position, the spring tongues 32 are bent upwards from the anchoring locations 33 because they are pressed upwards at the bearing lugs 34 by the spindles of the rollers 13. The connections 36 at the front ends, in the region of the part 35 of the spring tongues 32, are raised as a result and the suction cups 37 are raised off from the top side of the envelopes 30. In this state, the envelope-conveying arrangement 4 can convey envelopes 30 without obstruction to a stop arrangement (see FIGS. 1 and 2). If the envelope-conveying belt 6 is then brought to a standstill and the roller bar 10 is raised into the position represented by solid lines in FIG. 4, the suction cups 37 are positioned on the top side of the envelope 30. If the suction cups 37 are then subjected to a vacuum, they are then secured firmly by suction on the top side of the envelope 30. Further raising of the roller bar 10 subsequently causes the envelope 30 to be opened, the adhesive flap of said envelope being secured meanwhile on the level of the envelope-filling bench 5 by the suction-cup arrangement 27. It can be seen that the arrangement shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 provides a drive for the suction-cup arrangement 36/37, which acts on the top side of the envelopes, in the form of the drive of the roller bar 10.

[0038] The lateral legs of the spring tongues 32 may be referred to as leaf-spring pairs. Unlike the embodiment shown, it is also possible for the bearing lugs 34 and a securing means for the connection 36 of suction cups 37 to be provided on individual leaf springs which are routed to the anchoring locations 33 of the carrier housing of the roller bar 10. 

1. Envelope-filling station having an envelope-filling bench (5) which is added onto a push-in station (2) of a mail-processing machine, in which enclosures or sets of enclosures are conveyed into the push-in station (2) by means of a conveyor (1) and are pushed into envelopes (30) by means of a push-in arrangement (3), said envelopes being conveyed by means of an envelope-conveying arrangement (4), on the envelope-filling bench (5), into a position opposite the push-in arrangement (3) and being opened there and held ready for receiving the enclosures or sets of enclosures and, once filled, being conveyed further, characterized in that the envelope-conveying arrangement (4) contains a circulating envelope-conveying belt (6), of which the top strand is guided over the envelope-filling bench (5) and is oriented transversely to the push-in direction, in that a roller bar (10) equipped with spring-mounted rollers (13) can be lowered onto the top side of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt (6), and raised from it, in a controlled manner, in that stop means (24) are arranged along the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt and can be brought into an active position directly above the level of the envelope-filling bench, and removed therefrom into an inactive position, in a controlled manner, such that envelopes (30) which have been conveyed up are brought to a standstill in a position opposite the push-in arrangement (3) with the stop means (24) active and with the roller bar (10) lowered, are filled with the roller bar (10) raised and are conveyed further with the stop means (24) inactive and the roller bar (10) lowered again, and in that at the beginning of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt (6), by means of an auxiliary conveying arrangement (14), envelopes can be conveyed up separately against in particular adjustable stops (23) from a horizontal direction perpendicular to the running direction of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt (6), such that subregions of the respective envelope which has run up against the further stops (23) extend into the gap between the raised roller bar (10) and the beginning of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt (6) such that, when the roller bar (10) is lowered against the top strand of the circulating envelope-conveying belt (6), the relevant envelope is drawn in front of the push-in arrangement (3) in the conveying direction of said envelope-conveying belt.
 2. Envelope-filling station according to claim 1, characterized in that the operation of feeding the separated envelopes (30) out of an envelope-separating station from a horizontal direction perpendicular to the running direction of the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt (6) takes place by means of an auxiliary conveying belt (17) and abutment rollers or abutment belts interacting therewith.
 3. Envelope-filling station according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the roller bar (10) has a beam-like carrier housing which is coupled to drive means (11) for raising and lowering it and on which spring tongues (32) or pairs of leaf-spring elements are anchored (33), these retaining bearings (34) for supporting on both sides the journals of disc-like, comparatively large-diameter rollers (13).
 4. Envelope-filling station according to claim 3, characterized in that at least one of the spring tongues or leaf-spring pairs bears, on spring sections (35) extending from the anchoring locations (33), starting from the bearings (34), suction-cup arrangements (36, 37) which are connected to a vacuum source via flexible vacuum lines and controllable valves and of which the suction-cup openings, with the roller bar (10) raised off from the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt (6), extend down at least to the level of the lowermost circumferential regions of the rollers (13), and with the roller bar (10) lowered onto the top strand of the envelope-conveying belt (6) and the rollers (13) loaded, with spring-tongue deformation or leaf-spring deformation taking place in the process, are raised by way of the spring sections (35), above the level of the lowermost circumferential regions of the rollers (13), the suction-cup arrangement (36, 37) serving for opening and keeping open the envelopes during the actuation of the push-in arrangement (3).
 5. Envelope-filling station according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the carrier housing of the roller bar (10) and the spring tongues or leaf-spring pairs are designed in one piece, in particular as a plastic injection moulding. 